Skip to main content

Gun Violence and the Ten Plagues of Egypt


For a long time I have felt that we are in a situation akin to the ten plagues of Egypt when it comes to gun violence in America.  Incidentally, my son and I are reading the Bible together and tonight we read Exodus 11.  God has commanded Moses and Aaron to go before Pharaoh and ask that the Israelites be set free.  God knows that Pharaoh will refuse because it is God Himself who hardens Pharaoh's heart.  But each time Pharaoh refuses, God conveys powers through Moses and Aaron to effect horrible plagues upon Egypt.  With each one Pharaoh momentarily says he will lets the Israelites go if only God will stop the plague.  But then he reneges on his promise and reverts to his hardened heart, just as God knows he will do.
 
"And there was a Cry in Egypt"
Arthur Hacker
 
But with the tenth, most punishing plague of all, God decrees that the firstborn son of all Egyptians will die.  It is only with this plague that Pharaoh finally allows the Israelites to leave with Moses and Aaron - he will change his mind later of course, but by then it will be too late.

To me each of these horrible mass shootings are like plagues, in which God is telling us to do something.  God is leaving it up to us.  I don't think He means to solve this problem for us.  If this is the country, the world we want to live in, I don't think God will stop it.  Of course He is saddened.  He loves all of us.  I am sure it breaks His heart that we are destroying each other.  He is not causing these plagues to happen.  But these plagues are a by-product of our sins.  Anger.  Rage.  Greed.  Desperate thirst for power and significance.  Selfishness and instant gratification.  Culminating with problems not being solved by non-violent means, but with lethal retribution, warped needs for revenge.
 
Will we get the message?  Or is this the society we have chosen?  A violent, depraved society, not unlike others in the world and those which have existed throughout history.  And more and more every day, we make the choice towards the latter.  When the answer is really so simple: we follow God.  Repent of these sins that invariably cause gun violence.  Replace hate with love.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 22 - Beck Diet Solution, Say “Oh Well” To Disappointment

Inigo Montoya: Who are you? Man in Black: No one of consequence. Inigo Montoya: I must know... Man in Black: Get used  to disappointment. Inigo Montoya: 'kay. The Princess Bride (20th Century Fox 1987) Just as Inigo shrugs off the disappointment of the Man in Black’s declining to reveal his identity and gets right back into the duel, so too must we shrug off those discouragements that go hand-in-hand with losing weight and keep truckin’ down the weight loss trail.   It’ll go easier for us if we do.  What if we just lay around bellyaching about how horrible it is that we can’t have that donut, can’t eat/drink exactly what everybody else does at parties, can’t just open the fridge and eat whenever we felt like it?  How much would we really accomplish that way?  Even if we do stick to our plans for a little while under that mindset, we’d be fighting an exhausting battle with ourselves every day and eventually give in.  Even the patience an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jimmy - 2/1/20

I dreamed of my Jimmy last night.  It was one of those dreams where it was all a mistake.  He hadn't really died.  He was at some nursing home and they were trying to find him for me.  Then in another part of the dream he was running around randomly spraying a hose.  Being that goofy Jimmy that he was.  I was hiding from him, terrified.  Then he popped up in front of me and sprayed some in my face, and I just laughed.  I hugged him hard.  Then in another part of the dream I was lying with him on the floor of the den in my grandparents' house, where sometimes I would just fall asleep in contentment.  I was leaning against my Jimmy.  I could feel myself leaning against him.  Then I woke up and saw I was leaning against the big pillow instead. Wow I love you Jimmy.  Always will.  Never was anyone like you before, nor will there ever be again.  This was not my first "it was all a mistake" dream.  I gu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pariah

so burnt out looking to socialize i take a few sips of the libation my senses heighten i just listen to the sounds of the room frenetic chatter all around me right next to me within inches of me the drink feels like my only friend that's how i know i'm going into a dark tunnel triggering all the worst in me people jabbering on like robots not talking to let people in but to keep people out like me how different this is from the days i wandered through Demarest Hall at Rutgers vibrations all around were pulling me in urging me to make merry with them with no alcohol in sight just love proliferating.... everyone was welcome everyone was celebrated and then there was tonight the chattering all around me me just sitting there invisible i tried to reach out tried to connect tried to feel like it felt when there was no barrier just acceptance no judgment but they turned away back to the safety of their own whatever that means so i put a stop to it i put my drink on the bar i walked...
Post a Comment
Read more